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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Super Moist Red Velvet Cupcakes

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

-Theodore Seuss Geisel

- better known as Dr. Seuss, American writer and cartoonist

Happy Valentines Day! I decided to make these red velvet cupcakes for my husband and his co workers. The people he works with, love red velvet cupcakes. I make them often, mostly for other people. I've made so many different recipes of them, trying to get them moist enough (I like my cake really moist.) I also have a problem with them not having enough flavor. Of course they're not supposed to really taste like chocolate, it's supposed to be a buttermilk cake with a slight cocoa flavor. These have a wonderful flavor, perhaps with a tad more cocoa than most red velvet cakes, and they are extraordinarily moist.

Success! I say.

I topped these with some crumbs and some marshmallow fondant flowers I had made for another project.

I buy cupcake wrappers at a restaurant supply store, they come in a package of 500, but they are much, much cheaper than at the grocery store, and I don't have to remember to buy them every time I make cupcakes.

I add the red with the tip of a knife until I get it the color I want. It takes almost 1/2 a jar to get it this red.

I use Wilton's "no taste red" it's called that because some red flavors have a bitter taste. It takes quite a bit to turn the whole batch red. This is a paste color, another good brand of paste color is Americolor. Paste is more concentrated than the liquid you buy at the grocery store.

I used Penzey's high fat cocoa. This was a Christmas present from my sister. Last time we were at the Penzey's store she bought some and told me how good it was. Of course I wanted some too!

More Awesome Cupcake Recipes

The Best Moist Chocolate Cupcake Recipe- These cupcakes are super moist and light and fluffy the same time, I've been making these cupcakes to rave reviews for years and just got around to posting the recipe now! Topped with silky chocolate buttercream

1 1/2 cups (354 ml.) buttermilk well shaken, (or add a tablespoon of vinegar to regular milk and let sit for a few minutes) Or use 1/2 yogurt and half soured milk. (that's what I did this time, but I've also used only soured milk)

1 Tablespoon vinegar, white or cider

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

red paste food coloring-use enough to get it as red as you want it. I use almost a half a jar.

Or if you only have access to the liquid color in the grocery store, you will need a whole (1 oz.) bottle.

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, 160 degrees Celsius, or Gas Mark 3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.

Beat together the sugar, melted butter and oil until smooth, about 3 minutes in an stand mixer. Or you can use a hand mixer.

Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Add the vinegar and the vanilla.

Add half the dry ingredients and mix well, then add half of the buttermilk and/or yogurt if you are using it.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well, then add the rest of the buttermilk/yogurt.

Add the color. If using the paste, add quite a bit, then stir and see if it's dark enough. Add more color to get it really red if it needs it. I use almost 1/2 a jar of the Wilton paste. If you are using the liquid, add the whole (1 oz.) bottle of liquid and mix well.

Scoop the batter with an ice cream scoop into muffin cups lined with cupcake liners, **edited to add** these cupcakes can be a bit greasy on the bottom, if you don't want that, then bake them in greaseproof or foil cupcake liners.** about 3/4 of the way full. The batter is quite liquidy, so alternately you can use a measuring cup with a spout and pour the batter in the cups that way, if you prefer.

Bake the cupcakes for 25-32 minutes. They're done when they pass a toothpick test .

When cool, frost the cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting recipe below. Top with crumbs if you like. It took me 2 cupcakes of crumbs to cover 30 cupcakes. (the recipe made 32.)

Cream Cheese Frosting

2, 8 oz packages cream cheese, room temperature

2 sticks (1 cup) (225 g.) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 Tablespoons Vanilla extract

pinch of salt

5-7 cups (625 g. to 875 g.) powdered sugar, or more

Beat the cream cheese and the butter together with a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer.

Beat it well until very creamy, about 4 minutes. Add the vanilla, 5 cups (625 g.) of sugar and a pinch of salt. Beat well until very fluffy, another 3 minutes or so.

Now check the consistency of the frosting. If you are going to pipe it, you may want it a little stiffer. I used exactly 5 cups (625 g.) and I was just able to pipe it. If you like a stiffer frosting, go ahead and add more powdered sugar to get it the way you like it. For this particular recipe, adding more powdered sugar is the only way to give it more body.

By the way, I tried making your salty caramels last week, and the flavor was incredible. They turned out too soft because I don't have a candy thermometer, but still. I had bookmarked your entry from November when I was staying at an ovenless dorm, but now I am back to my oven and very grateful for your shared receipes.

Wow! I have been searching for the perfect red velvet recipe forever and I have finally found it. These are absolutely delicious! I made 24 cupcakes and used the rest of the batter for a small cake. My husband is bringing sone in to work tomorrow and I know everyone will live them. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe. I will surely be using it often.

Beautiful color, very moist and great crumb... my only concern was the flavor. The ratio of cocoa to flour is should have tipped me off, but you mentioned how much flavor they had. I think I will try these again substituting a few tablespoons of flour for cocoa powder (I use Valrhona).

Chris- Thank you for your input. I think it's just a matter of taste. I prefer the higher amount of cocoa powder, when I know most recipes call for a lot less. As written it's not a traditional red velvet cake recipe, much too high in cocoa, but this is the way I prefer them. Thanks again for leaving the comment and letting us know of your results.

I tried this recipe last night and it was so moist and yummy! I used extra virgin olive oil and think next time I will either use less than a cup or a different kind of oil because I could kinda taste the oil. But fantastic frosting and it still tasted good I will see if I can perfect it! Thanks!

I make cupcakes weekly for events and have been looking for a great red velvet recipe. While everyone raved about the flavor, they sunk in the middle so I used the "well" for frosting. I'm not quite sure why I didn't get a nice domed top :( I'm trying them again today. I'll let you know how it goes.

This was the first time I've ever made anything like this. I'm not a big fan of frostings so I just sprinkled powdered sugar on them while warm and they turned out AWESOME! The only downsides were they did not rise much & the paper cups were very greasy after baking (although the cupcakes do not taste greasy). I'll make them again!

Annon- I did not delete any comments. I am sorry you had to throw the cupcakes away. I agree to a point, they are a little bit greasy on the bottom, but in my humble opinion, they are also delicious, and very moist like the title states. Again I am sorry you did not like them. But I stick by this recipe and make it often to rave reviews.

One more thing I'd like to mention, I can only tell they are greasy (and I only notice greasiness on the bottoms, and it's slight) when I use regular paper liners. When I use greaseproof liners or foil liners I don't have that problem at all, so it's a non issue. I don't find the cupcake itself greasy.

Hey there! Loving ur recipe to bits! Iv been trying lotsa different kinda recipes, but this is DA BOMB! Lols..ignore the neg input..u have more than enough comment to agree that this is delish & moist!!:)) thx for sharing!!

Annon- Cups are a unit of measure here in the U.S. So you would need a cup measure. So I don't reccomend using another type of cup.

You can use a conversion calculator like this one

http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking

to convert cups to grams.

In my current recipes I do show both forms of measure, but when I posted this recipe I wasn't doing that. I plan to convert the recipe to grams within the next few days. But if you need it sooner, I suggest using the conversion calculator, or you can google for another type of conversion chart.

I'm so glad to see you respond. I have a great question for you. I want to make these, but not as red velvet, as plain, and not as cupcakes, but as a cake. I obviously would leave out the cocoa, vinegar and food coloring. But what could I add to make up for these things? This is a delicious and moist recipe and it was pretty dense at the same time, so I think it would be a great stacking (and hopefully carving) cake. Please help as soon as you can! Thanks!

I'm so glad to see you respond. I have a great question for you. I want to make these, but not as red velvet, as plain, and not as cupcakes, but as a cake. I obviously would leave out the cocoa, vinegar and food coloring. But what could I add to make up for these things? This is a delicious and moist recipe and it was pretty dense at the same time, so I think it would be a great stacking (and hopefully carving) cake. Please help as soon as you can! Thanks!

Kelly- You can substitute flour for the cocoa but I've never done it so I don't know if it will turn out the same, I would just leave out the vinegar and dye. Another very moist white cake that you could try is "My favorite White Cupcakes" on this site. You will find it in the right column it's number 2 under this one, of Popular Posts. I wish you luck on whichever one yoi try.

I just made this using coconut milk and white vinegar, as an alternative to buttermilk, and apple cider vinegar as an alternative to the vinegar that the recipe calls for. I also halved everything and make a one layer 9" cake instead of cupcakes.

This cake is dense, moist and true to the flavors and texture of red velvet cake. Delicious! Make sure to have a glass of milk handy!

I've made these twice, playing with the ratio of cocoa:flour. The batch I made with double the ratio of cocoa:flour than this recipe has came out with a great texture, cocoa flavor, and was very moist, but was closer to a chocolate cupcake than red velvet. It also made it tricky to color as the cocoa made the batter so dark brown. I tried t again with the ratio as stated in the recipe, and the texture and moisture were still there, but I didn't feel there was much flavor. It's funny, because I agree with the precious review that it tastes much like cornbread. It's fine because the frosting taste stands out and the taste of the cake is subtle, but I'm not sure it tastes like "red velvet". Then again, I've never felt like red velvet cakes taste like anything until I tried one from a Brooklyn bakery that had a noticeable cocoa flavor. I may try another batch using a ratio of 10:1 cocoa:flour to see if I can get some of that cocoa flavor and still get a good color. I'd love to get some advice on whether it's just me or does most red velvet not really taste like much.

Emilie- I agree, I stated in the post that most red velvet recipes don't have much flavor, and this recipe as written, does have more cocoa than most recipes because I like more flavor also. Thank you for your input.

Annon- No it won't. It will become similar to buttermilk. If you are concerned then use store bought buttermilk. But this is something I do all the time. In fact my most recent recipe, Strawberry Crumb Cake uses either buttermilk or soured milk and I used soured milk for it and you can't even tell in the final results.

I'm finally trying out this recipe! Looks delicious. Quick question - will these cupcakes still be moist the following day? I have such trouble creating cupcakes that are still moist when I bring them to work the following day. Will I need a simple syrup or will this be fine as is?

I don't know the exact cooking time, you haven't told me what size pan you would be using. But I would estimate it the same as any other cake of the same size. It's done when it passes a toothpick test.

Baking soda is the only leavener in this recipe, they do rise somewhat, this isn't a super fluffy type of cake, it's moist sort of more dense, but they do rise. If you are concerned, adding 1 or 2 tsp. of bakins powder wouldn't hurt.

Hi there, I love this recipe. Normally my mum's not a cupcakes fan but she ate quite a lot of these and asked me to make more. Thanks for the recipe and I've got a question. If I wanna make matcha cupcakes, as in like green tea cupcakes. Do I just substitute the cocoa and the colour? Will it be alright or do you recommend another recipe. Thanks.Chris

Annon - You can easily cut this recipe in half. Whenever I do this personally, I go ingredient by ingredient, and halve it. For example, the flour amount is 3 cups, so I add 1 1/2 and so on. I think this is the easiest way. Good luck!

Wow Alchemist, today my 11 yr old and I tried this recipe for his baking class and we have to keep this in our recipe book for forever! yummm! Perfectly moist, and the flavor is perfection. We used an entire mini container of Wiltons red (no taste) paste and 1 large vanilla bean instead of extract. We always have olive oil in the pantry but happy we read previous posts to see that it may be too much, so we used canola oil. We also made whoopie pies and cupcakes for his teammates instead of the cake size. Also added the juice of 1 lemon to add a hint of tang to the icing. Perfection on wheels. Thanks so much!

Wow Alchemist, today my 11 yr old and I tried this recipe for his baking class and we have to keep this in our recipe book for forever! yummm! Perfectly moist, and the flavor is perfection. We used an entire mini container of Wiltons red (no taste) paste and 1 large vanilla bean instead of extract. We always have olive oil in the pantry but happy we read previous posts to see that it may be too much, so we used canola oil. We also made whoopie pies and cupcakes for his teammates instead of the cake size. Also added the juice of 1 lemon to add a hint of tang to the icing. Perfection on wheels. Thanks so much!

Annon- Sorry I don't know of a way to keep this particular frosting stable in hot weather. Cream cheese, like butter, when hot just tends to melt. If you need to prevent that, you might make a frosting that doesn't tend to melt in hot weather, like a shortening based recipe.

Thanks for the recipe. I made it for a charity bake sale at work. They came out awesome; very moist not greasy. I did make two moderations: I used cake flour as was suggested by someon else and 1/2 cup of oil with 1-1/2 cups buttermilk, so 1/2 cup less oil and 1/2 cup more buttermilk. They are perfect!

Hello. im the biggest fan of your moist chocolate cake so i thought id try this one. They taste incredible but mine looked sad lol sunken in the middle, peeling from the liner. I will try until they come out perfect. Thank you

Hello. im the biggest fan of your moist chocolate cake so i thought id try this one. They taste incredible but mine looked sad lol sunken in the middle, peeling from the liner. I will try until they come out perfect. Thank you

I had searched the internet for "moist cupcake" when this popped up and I thought I would give it a go. Lets just say I had some problems during my journey. I needed some of the ingredients that I hadn't already got in stock, mainly cocoa, vanilla, red colouring and buttermilk. I haven't ever seen buttermilk before so was intrigued by it (tasted disgusting!) I was worried about putting it in a mix especially with vingegar and oil. All of which I have never used in cake mixtures before!

Everything seemed to be going to plan... until I couldn't get the mixture to go red at all, I almost put twice the recommended amount in to get a dark pink, I don't know. Anyway, I then realised I don't own a muffin tin (where on earth did that go? It must have got lost in a house move somewhere!!) so had to cram muffin cases in a the tiny holes made for small cakes as I had a couple of those tins.

Into the oven they went, a little wary that these brown/pink cakes were already looking flat and crammed, going into an oven that hubby says is playing up at anything under 200 degrees C :(

25 mins later my phone alarm goes off and I rush to the oven.. just to find my worst nightmare had happened, they HAD risen..sideways...and the cocktail stick test told me they were severly undercooked :( Hubby must have heard my exclamation of horror, because in he came, and wacked the oven on 200, crammed the cakes back in and told me to wait 10 mins. 10 mins later out came these cooked cakes... yay!! Apart from they are flat and really random shapes where they were nestled up against each other :( Oh and brown :( :( BUT they taste AMAZING!!!

I will definitly be trying this recipe again, but this time with muffin tins, a new oven and I think the brown colour was due to Cadbury's Bourneville Cocoa, maybe normal cocoa wouldn't counteract the red? But the texture was amazing, melt in the mouth, (NON GREASY!) yummy, just begging to be eaten ;) No problems with greasy cups at all! Thank-you for posting this recipe and listening to my random story!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this recipe. I'm not a big fan of Red Velvet cupcakes but I get asked to make them all the time. This recipe is my foolproof, fail safe go-to recipe as the cupcakes always come out perfectly. Light, moist and fluffy and when topped with cream cheese butter icing, simply delicious. The bottoms of the cases are a little greasy, but this is soon sorted out by placing the cupcakes on kitchen roll once they've cooled. A HUGE thank you :)

OK so I just HAD to come back and post a comment. My daughter, who turned 17 today!, asked me to make her some Red Velvet Cupcakes to bring to school (yes, she still does that). I came across your recipe yesterday as I was looking for one that would make moist cupcakes because as anyone who has ever made Red Velvet knows, they tend to be dry. I figured I had to give this one a shot, it sounds delish and the extra cocoa??? HELLO!! Extra chocolate is always good. Not only was I impressed with the quantity these made. 3 dozen cupcakes and a single layer cake, but they are DELICIOUS! Moist, fluffy, yummy. My new favorite recipe!!!! Thank you so much for sharing and helping me make my daughter's birthday that much better. <3 For the frosting, we ended up using 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and 1 tablepoon of almond extract. Very tasty indeed! I know I will be coming back to try more of your recipes. Thank you so so much for taking the time to share!!!!

Well you've done it again, awesome recipe, you are a genius! I'm starting to get quite a reputation as a cupcake baker because of your recipes ;-) Thanks again for sharing, everyone loved these. I'm sure these will be blogged about next week, I'll link back to you as I did before for your best moist chocolate cupcakes :-D

Hi Elaine, the weight of a cup of flour varies based upon certain factors, it's rarely the same twice. Ml is liquid measurements, not weight. Grams is by weight.

The way I write my recipes is I use a cup measure which is the way I'm most familiar with living in the US. Then I weigh the cup measurements and log the grams. If it's liquid, I measure the cups in a liquid measuring cup then log the ml's.

To measure flour use either cups or grams but don't use ml's unless it's a liquid ingredient.

Hi, I made these cupcakes last week.they were super moist and loved the flavor. I'm hoping to make a cake from this recipe.so I have few questions. first of all what will be the baking time? my cake pan is 8" and i'm planing to make this a layer cake.so do you think this recipe ingredients will be enough for a 3 layer cake.(small layers) Also do i have to bake the 3 cake layers separately or can i just bake it as one single cake and layer it to three.

Hi Thilo - I'm glad you liked the cupcakes! How long you cook the layers depends on how deep the layers are. If you do make them in 3 layers, in 3 pans, and you make them thin, they could take as little as 12 minutes or up to 20 ish. Just make sure the center is done and a toothpick comes out clean in the center.

For me personally, I would bake the 3 layers separately. The reason is when you make one layer and split it, it's so easy for it to break, especially with a really moist cake like this. Make sure to grease the pans well as well as put a layer of parchment paper down (a parchment paper round) and then grease the paper. That will make sure the cakes come out clean.

Qudsiyah Kassim - Here in the U.S we don't have castor sugar, we have granulated sugar. From what I've read, castor sugar is finely ground sugar used for baking, so I believe that should work in this recipe.

Also here in the U.S. we call icing sugar, powdered sugar. I believe it's the same thing from what I've read, very finely ground sugar, ground into a powder.

Hi! I had so much extra icing after following your recipe.. is it really like that? Any suggestions on what to do with the extra icing? I'm scared it'll turn bad if we leave it in the fridge. This is my first time to bake too.

Papillon - Most of my frosting recipes are butter based or cream cheese based. So if you give me more details I might be able to be of more help. For example, do you need them to sit at room temperature for a long time? Or are you in a warm climate, if so, how warm? I may be able to help, but I need more details.

Just made this a day before posting a comment. Followed all the instructions carefully but my frosting turned out runny, really hard to pipe on my "cooled" cupcakes. I put enough sugar and don't want to add more because it will become too sweet for me. We mostly have warm climates like 30-32°c here in our country. Is it because of the humidity? What do I need to do to make it perfect next time?

Papillon - Your frosting will be runny until you add enough sugar to give it body. This recipe gets it's thickness from the powdered sugar. You need to use another recipe that doesn't get it's body from powdered sugar. Like the frosting recipe for my white cupcakes recipe, actually both of my white cupcakes recipes have frostings that aren't too sweet. OR do a search for a 7 minute frosting, that is like a marshmallow tasting frosting that gets its thickness from meringue or whipped egg whites. Anyway, unfortunately the only thing you could do next time to make this particular frosting thicker, is add more powdered sugar.

I love all your recipes so thought I'd give these a try. The mixture was bright red, I used one and a half little pots of red food colouring! However they came out the oven more of a brown colour with a red tinge... What am I doing wrong??

Sam - My guess is that your cocoa powder was darker than the one I used. If you'd like them to have a brighter red look to them, you would need to decrease the cocoa powder. You could use half that amount (substitute the part you didn't use with flour.) But you would be substituting flavor. They will have less flavor if you do that. However, my recipe has more cocoa powder than a traditional red velvet cake, so you would be making a more traditional red velvet cupcake. I hope that helps.

Hi! Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe. The cupcakes turned out wonderfully, not greasy at all. Just one question as I'm about to make the frosting: did you mean two eight-ounce packages of cream cheese, making a total of 16oz? Or does the frosting need only 8oz of cream cheese? Thanks!

Hi Melissa,I've tried this recipe with a slight alteration in the quantity of the oil (3/4 cup), flour, sugar and cocoa as i use the UK measurement cups. And i also add a teaspoon of baking powder. But yet It turned out moist and fluffy. Thanks for the recipe.

do you use whole fat buttermilk or reduced fat? I notice when I make red velvet cupcakes they have a slight bitter taste. Wasn't sure if it is because of the buttermilk, cocoa or bottle red coloring by McCormick

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